JangoBio, a biotech company developing a therapy to reduce the negative effects of aging, could be starting human trials as early as next year.
That’s according to company COO Bill Kohl, who spoke alongside CEO Craig Atwood at a recent progress update for interested parties at the Foley & Lardner law offices in Madison.
The company’s proposed method for reducing these effects, including the progression of age-related diseases, involves regrowing key cells in the body that are responsible for keeping hormones in balance.
As the body ages, tissues break down and biosynthesis of sex hormones is diminished in a condition called hypogonadism. In an attempt to slow, stop or even reverse this process, JangoBio plans to apply stem cells to regrow these vital tissues.
The team is currently refining cells in vitro, which means the refinement is taking place in a test tube or culture dish, or anywhere outside a living organism.
“We’re attempting to select the best candidates to move through the clinical pipeline, and we have some good, solid in vitro data demonstrating that we can differentiate these cells down a path that we need,” Atwood said.
Once that’s done, he said, the JangoBio team is going to bioengineer some of the cells to produce certain key factors, so that when the cells are injected into a human or animal, they will differentiate into cell types that are needed to correct the hormone imbalance that happens naturally as people and animals age. Read the full story here.
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